Questions about MagSafe chargers, time capsules and best way to upgrade Snow Leopard.

I have a older style (square magsafe) charger for my macbook pro 15" that I bought about a year and a half ago. Model #A1222, 85W.

Will any 85W charger work? I want to get a replacement since my cat chewed the hell out of it (its that nice soft cord) a few times and I have repaired it but it keeps getting shorter and shorter.

I just got another MBP 13" and it has the new style charger and the cord is a much harder shielding which my cat doesn't seem to go near.

Also why I ask is you can get some other 85W magsafe's used or on ebay for a good price but generally there all model #MA938LL/A.

Thanks in advance!

 

I have Leopard on my 1.5 year old MBP I just bought the family pack to upgrade two of our mac's to the Snow Leopard.

Now what is the best way of doing this? I have never upgraded a mac, back when I had PC's I would just take note of all the applications/software I have installed, then copy all my documents over to a external HD, then move them back on, download and re-install all my apps.

Is there a better way with mac? I hope so. I have never used the time-machine feature, im thinking maybe this can help me?

I have LOTS of documents on my mac (docs, movies, music, lots of work, pictures etc) as well as many programs and apps. Is there a way to copy the apps over to a external HD or will I have to once again re-download and re-install them?

Thanks in advance,
Matt

 

Lifehacker does a pretty good job when explaining things like this.

How to Upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard

I'm pretty sure that it will leave all of your data alone. The people at LH just suggest backing up your data in case something goes wrong (unlikely).

 

thanks for the link. im thinking I want to reformat the entire computer though. start fresh. is there a good way of backing up apps?

I assume time-machine is the way to go? It will copy everything and when I reload it after installing snow leopard it will place all the files just as they were?

Never used time machine sorry so if someone could explain it that would be awesome.

Thanks again

 

I haven't used Time Machine before either, but Google would probably be the best place to start looking for answers. Apple probably has lots of literature on the subject.

 

There is no reason not to use Time Machine since its free and does backups automatically. You should be using this regardless of upgrading to Snow Leopard. I did upgrades from Leopard to Snow Leopard on my iMac and my wife's Macbook and it went fine. They really didn't change too much of the system itself so the upgrade was very painless.

 

Make a Time Machine backup...

Do a fresh install of the OS

When on first boot you are asked by Migration Assistant if you want to transfer data from another Mac.. you select yes, and tell it from a Time Machine backup, then it will pull everything needed from Time Machine.

At the end, its basically exactly like you did a standard upgrade, but a bit cleaner.

 

your new 13" has a 65W adapter, but a 85W will work on it. You can buy any Apple 85W to replace the old 85W.... and while the connector looks different, they are interchangeable... the newer plug works on older machines.. and the older plugs work on newer machines fine.

Liquid soap does wonders for teaching cats to not chew on cords.

 

nice and thanks for the tip of liquid soap

 

Ok well I did my first time machine backup. I re-did it because it seemed like it missed some files but it came up with the same stats again...

Took all night.

But what is strange is when the backup first started and as it was running it said:

Backing up 575,377 Items
165.32 GB

When using the disk utility and checking the Time Machine Backups external HD it says:

Number of files: 461,390
Space used: 160.9 GB

Should I be worried that it missed something?

I did a quick look on the drive via just the finder and it appears that everything is there, files seem to open but applications dont (which I assume is normal)

 

They way I like to do a fresh install is make a clone of my current drive with Carbon Copy Cloner to a external drive, then just formate my main drive and install the OS. This way, I have a completely clean install and what ever I need I can just copy over from the clone and not worry about stuff getting transfered that I don't want to or need.

 

Ok so does anyone know the difference between the MA938LL and the A1222 (the one that came with my 2009 MBP 15")

Is one older and one newer?

 

Yeah you mean just do it manually? Thing is my MBP isnt too old and I keep it clean by putting old files on a external hd anyways, so I really do want everything thats on it back on.

Now stupid question, how do I reformat? Just put the original CD in?

 

I wouldn't worry too much about the file sizes you will be fine. Here is a great walkthrough for doing a clean install. Quicker then me typing it all out for you

TUTORIAL: Preform a Snow Leopard Clean Install | Snow Leopard Tips

After you go through all that you can then run your Migration Assistant and restore you Time Machine backup. Should take about 30-45 mins.

 

How many of you guys/gals have one? How do you like it?

I have seriously been considering getting one, its a pain to have a external HD plugged into my MBP all the time, I know I can unplug it and only make backups here and there, but the time capsule solves this problem.

I have some questions though that im still unsure of.

1) So this works like a router, I will not need a wireless router anymore?

2) Can I partition it some how? So I can have some room saved for just sharing files like a "drop box" for others in my home and not just use it strictly for time machine backups? If so, Is it easy for other machines to access my files/the drive (with permission of course)?

OR is it just best to plug my lacie external HD into the time capsule for this? I can do that right, and access my Lacie external HD thru the time capsule?

4) How does it work for multiple mac's using time machine? Does it make 2 separate folders for each machine?

3) Should I get the 1TB or 2TB? Im leaning on the 1TB especially if I can plug in another external HD to use as a "drop box"

Thanks for all the help in advance once again!